The Arrow of Apollo, page 26
Furious, Achilles enters the fray, slaughtering many Trojans, eventually killing Hector, their greatest prince.
Later in the war, Achilles is killed by Paris. The city eventually falls when Odysseus tricks the Trojans into pulling in a wooden horse, full of Greek fighters.
The Greeks are merciless in their destruction of the city, killing Priam, and taking his wife and daughters captive.
They return home. Agamemnon, when he reaches his palace, is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, in revenge for his killing of Iphigenia.
Orestes, who had been sent away, returns, and murders Clytemnestra along with her new husband Aegisthus, with the help of his sister Electra.
Appalled by the murder, the gods send the Furies to hound Orestes, chasing him through Greece, until he ends up in Athens.
He is absolved by Apollo. In some versions, the Furies continue to haunt him, so he is sent to retrieve a sacred statue of Artemis from Tauris.
Here Orestes eventually meets Iphigenia, recognises her, and the cycle is over.
Or is it?
Further Reading
I hope that you will want to read more about the wonderful stories that helped to inspire this novel.
For the tale of Aeneas, go to Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid. Here you will find a passionate and vivid account of the fall of Troy, as well as the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage.
The cycle of Orestes is a dark one, and it is told best in Aeschylus’s powerful trilogy, The Oresteia, which comprises three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. These relate how Agamemnon was killed, and Orestes took revenge on his mother and was then pursued by the Furies. Euripides’s Orestes shows a less heroic side of the prince. We also have Electra, as told by both Euripides and Sophocles.
Homer’s The Iliad concerns a few weeks in the long cycle of the Trojan War, in which the great fighter Achilles withdraws from battle.
If you are interested in Greek and Roman myth, a wealth of interpretations and retellings are available. My favourites as a boy were Roger Lancelyn Green’s Tales of the Greek Heroes, and his charming The Luck of Troy.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my family: my wife, Tatiana von Preussen, my parents, Richard and Marie Womack, and my parents-in-law, Andrew and Alexandra von Preussen, for helping to give me the space and time to write this book.
Thank you to Fiona Lensvelt, for taking on this project, and to Liz Garner, for her excellent, elegant editing skills, and to the rest of the team: Alexander Eccles, Hayley Shepherd, and everyone else at Unbound.
Thank you to Robert Christie for reading through the manuscript, and his always astute comments. And I would also like to thank those authors who have been so generous with their moral support, especially Katherine Rundell, Cressida Cowell and Philip Reeve.
Unbound is the world’s first crowdfunding publisher, established in 2011.
We believe that wonderful things can happen when you clear a path for people who share a passion. That’s why we’ve built a platform that brings together readers and authors to crowdfund books they believe in – and give fresh ideas that don’t fit the traditional mould the chance they deserve.
This book is in your hands because readers made it possible. Everyone who pledged their support is listed below. Join them by visiting unbound.com and supporting a book today.
Tricia Adams
Yoana AN
Aaliyah Ansari
Jon Appleton
George Arah
Anna Arco
Michael Arditti
Adrian Arnold
Ludo, Aurelia & Cosima Aslangul
Jake Astor
Bertie Austin
Tori Ayling
Elektra Bach
Elisa Bach
Anna Baddeley
Isabelle Baker
Helen Barker
Memphis Barker
Emma Barnard
Theadora Barrington-Wells
Ian Beck
Jonathan Beckman
Sebastian Bell Pukk
Viren Bhaika
Sylvia Bishop
Simon Boas
Mark Bowsher
George Boylan
Rosanna Boyle
Al Braithwaite
Olivia Breese
Georgina Bremridge
Frank Brinkley
John Brinsmead-Stockham
Zelda Emily Brinsmead-Stockham
Alice Broadway
Matt Brown
Ursula Buchan
Kate Burdette
Mark Burgess
T C
Mina and Freya Caines
Cate Cannon
Ariadne Caroussis
Erietta Caroussis
Isidore Caroussis
Jim Carrington
Ellen Catherall
Esther Chadwick
David Chamberlain
Roland Chambers
Charlie Chappatte
Jessica Chiba
Jessie Childs
Robert Christie
Sandy Christie
Tomas Christie
Sarah Clapp
Sue Clark
Amabel Clarke
Margaret Clothier
Joanna Clough
Antonia Coad
Lucy Coats
Dom Conlon
James Cook
Jude Cook
Jenni Coombe
Katerina Costeletos
Sarah Courtauld
Cressida Cowell
Douglas Cowie
Karina Cox
Amanda Craig
Sophie Crocker - Tormead
Stephanie Cross
Charles Cumming
Mary Cundall
Keren David
Zanna Davidson
Michael Deacon
Alida Debenham
Octavia Dickinon
Antonia Donnelly
Jenny Doughty
Charlie Drury
Sophie Drysdale
Patrick Duncombe
Philip Eade
Fernanda Eberstadt
Lauren Elkin
Anna & James Elliot
Abi Elphinstone
Seb Emina
Mathilda Enderlein
Jessica Espey
Edward Evans
Hermione Eyre
Polly Faber
Ben Faccini
Francis Featherby
June Fellows
Oliver Fetiveau
Robert Finch
Noah, Otto & Lulu Fine
Tom Fleming
Paul Fletcher
Andrew Fogg
Peter Frankopan
John Fulton
Mike Gallagher
Sally Gardner
Rosie Garthwaite
Elizabeth Gatland
Beanie Geraedts-Espey
Adele Geras
Nayla Ghantous
Liz Gloyn
Benjamin Goldsmith
Edmund Gordon
Corinne Gotch
Sarah Govett
Luke Grant
Thomas Grant
Julia Gray
Kevin Gray
Caroline Green
Edward Greenhalgh
Gallia Grimston
Hector Grimston
Lorcan Grimston
Merlin Grimston
Ophelia Grimston
Karen Groos
Mafalda Groos
Alexis Guedroitz
Solina Guedroitz
Daniel Hahn
Gretel Hallett
Lucy Hallett
Susan Hallett
Leif-Erik Hannikainen
Frances Hardinge
Katherine Hardy
Sam Hare
Clare Harland
Horatia Harrod
A.F. Harrold
Lucy Hart
Selina Hastings
Maximilian Hawker
Robert Heaps
John Heaton-Armstrong
Bea Hemming
Henry Hemming
Patrick Hennessey
Kate Henson
Stuart Heritage
Cecilia Hewett
Rose Heyman
Fiona Higgins
Jacqueline Higgins
Isaac Apollo Hirst
Henry Hitchings
Ernestine Hocken
Mary Hoffman
The Hoffman Family
Ali Hollingshead
Iain Hollingshead
Ferelith Hordon
Chip Horne
Gabriel Hudson
Nell Hudson
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Jasper Jackson
Cressida Jauncey
Ada Rae Jencks
Inigo Jencks
Lily Jencks
Simon Jerrome
Signe Johansen
Dylan John
Tristan John
Alfred Johnson
Marlene Johnson
Oliver Jones
Susanna Jones
Melissa Katsoulis
Judith Katz
Emmeline Kay
Rupert Kay
Lottie Kertesz
Dan Kieran
Mary Killen
Rebecca King
Katherine Kingsley
Josh Klarica
Hector Kociak
Dunstan Kornicki
Brian Lacy
Hugo Lacy
George Lamb
Paul Lay
Matisse Le Roch Platford
Jonathan Lee
Charlie Lee-Potter
Sam Leith
Mark Lennox-Boyd
Philippa Lennox-Boyd
Patricia Lennox-Boyd & Jamie Stevens
Fiona Lensvelt
Thomas Leonard
Mouse Lesser
Gill Lewis
Natacha Lippens
Adrian Lloyd
James Lonsdale
Soo-Lin Lui
Jack MacInnes
Alastair Mackeown
Anna Maconochie
Brigid Mahony
Lena Makda
Jessica Mann
Will Mann
Benjamin Markovits
Julia Marlow
Barty Martelli
Freddie Martelli
Conrad Mason
Taran Matharu
Melissa McAdden
Annabella McAughtry-Hilliard
Geraldine McCaughrean
Claire McCauley
Pandora McCormick
Magnus McCullagh
Gabriella McDonald
Edward McGovern
Joanne McGovern
Anthony McGowan
Lilou Melville
Charlie Mills
Sam Mills
John Mitchinson
Ivo Moncrieffe
Clare Monro
Ross Montgomery
Douglas Moody-Stuart
Henry Moody-Stuart
Tom Moody-Stuart
Michael Mordue
Llewelyn Morgan
Sam Morgan
Rhel ná DecVandé
Sarah Naughton
Carlo Navato
Geordie Naylor-Leyland
Erin Nelsen Parekh
Kalypso Nicolaidis
Charlotte Nourse
Adam O’Riordan
Fiona O’Rorke
Charlotte O’Sullivan
Cliodhna O’Sullivan
Deborah Orr
Olivier Henri Orteu
Samira Osman
Fox Parkin
Sarah Pennell
Nicholas Pierpan
Daniel Pimlott
Justin Pollard
Cressida Pollock
Potel Family
Alex Preston
Tatiana Preussen
Richard Price
Chris Priestley
T J Putnam
Sameer Rahim
Mahesh Rao
Shoo Rayner
Andrea Reece
Celia Rees
Philip Reeve
Helen Reid
Robert Riddell
Liam Riley
Adam Roberts
Laura Roberts
Suzy Robinson
Myrto Rochat
Alex Rooney
Tamsin Rosewell
Meg Rosoff
Lyra Rossetti-Wright
Katherine Rundell
Imogen Russell Williams
Charles Rutter
SF Said
Francesca Sanders
Hugo Sanders
Nathalie Savić
Christoph Schmiedel
Beatrice Schutzer-Weissmann
Jenny Schwarz
Rosemary Scott
James Scudamore
Marcus Sedgwick
Oliver Seyfried
Helen K. Shair
Andrew Shead
JA Sheppe
Luka Shields
Nicola Shulman
Max Silver
William Skidelsky
Nancy Sladek
H W Smee
Mark William Shigelu Smith
Ava Celeste Somerville
George Spalton
Francesca Spence
Josh Spero
Denise Spreag
Lauren St John
St Johns Primary School
Alicia Stallings
Anna Stothard
Eliza Stothard
Michael Stothard
Stephanie Street
Arthur Stroud
Jonathan Stroud
Emma and Andrew Sutcliffe
Camilla Swift
Elizabeth Swift
Lucy Taylor
Kathryn Tempest
Julia Thaxton
Edward Thomas
Agnes Thompson
Betsy Tobin
Sophie Tollemache
Piers Torday
Anna Tyzack
Iain Ure
Cara Usher
George Van den Bergh
Gaby van Halteren
Sally Vince
Alex von Preussen
Andrew von Preussen
Beatrice von Preussen
Brigid von Preussen
Fritzi von Preussen
Rupert von Preussen
Florence Walker
Catriona Ward
Olivia Watchman
Holly Watt
Jonathan Weil
Venetia Welby
Mary Wellesley
Martin West
Ben Whately
Otto Wheeler
Piers Wheeler
Alan White
Thomas Wide
Willem
Matilda Willson
William Willson
Frances Wilson
Frederick Windsor
Robertus Wiuhomarch
William Wolsey
Ashley William Womack
Dr Marija Obradović Womack
John Muir Womack
Richard Womack
Margaret Womack (in loving memory)
George Woods
Isabella Woods
Tyler Woolcott
Janet Wright
Alex Wyndham
George Wyndham
First published in 2020
Unbound
6th Floor Mutual House, 70 Conduit Street, London W1S 2GF
www.unbound.com
All rights reserved
© Philip Womack, 2020
The right of Philip Womack to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Text Design by Ellipsis, Glasgow
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78352-867-7 (trade pbk)
ISBN 978-1-78352-869-1 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-78352-868-4 (limited edition)
Printed in Great Britain by CPI
Philip Womack, The Arrow of Apollo
